Free to Ride!

My request to be excused from jury duty was accepted. However, I'm not completely off the hook. It was postponed to the following week. That's OK. Now, I only have to change 2 appointments scheduled for that week. And...a state holiday falls on Thursday of the same week, so maybe the court people, lawyers, judges will also be taking Friday off.

Sounds of Summer

I've already"enjoyed" the wonderful sounds of numerous pool parties at the Nimbys already this season. But the party last weekend was the best so far. The Nimbys hosted an adult party which means no swimming in the pool, but lots of loud conversation and even louder music. The music got so loud at times that I could hear it when inside my walk in closet.

Guess the new owners of our home are going to be in for a big surprise. I'm glad I'm not going to be around for what could be a very long summer.

Civic Duty

I got a fun little notice in the mail the other day. My name was randomly selected for jury duty. I've done this before, so it was no big deal. I'd be happy to show up and take my chances of being selected. After all, I'd be paid a whopping $49 a day for fulfilling my civic duty. I was fine with this until I read the date that I was suppose to be available for the picking and choosing. It was the same week that I have a trip planned and have had it planned for quite awhile. Wait - not that week! Any week but that one. After all, my brother has already purchased his plane tickets to join my husband and me on a week long motorcycle trip. I don't want to be stuck sitting in a courtroom waiting to see if I'm needed for jury.

So I hope that when I submitted my request to be excused, some kind person thought that a planned motorcycle trip was a good enough excuse. If not, I may have to just take my chances on being found in contempt and getting thrown in jail for not showing up.

I certainly hope that I get a break on this.

All work and no play

With moving day coming quickly, what we should have done last Saturday is gone through stuff in the garage, cleaned out closets, made a D.I. run, packed a few boxes. But with blue skies and near perfect air temperature for riding, we bagged the all work and decided to play. So, my husband borrowed his brother's touring motorcycle and we took off for the day.

You know, all work and no play...

Aggravations and Stupid People

It seems that I've had my share of life's little aggravations and people's stupidity the last few days.

The home inspector who inspected our home for the buyers left lights on all over the house, blinds in various positions of open and close, and, most aggravating, turned off circuit breakers to appliances and various outlets through out the house. I had to go through the entire house turning off lights, adjusting blinds and flipping circuit breakers. The kicker was the next morning when I plugged in my hair dryer and it didn't work. I missed one circuit breaker. It also appeared like he ate a few of the brownies that were in baggie on the kitchen counter. Hey, fella, didn't your mother teach you anything about common courtesy?

Even though I have a very polite sign posted on exterior doors inviting real estate agents, their clients and other people who have been parading through my home, to kindly remove their shoes, they don't and end up tracking in dust and dirt on my newly cleaned hardwood floors. Come on people, have a little consideration!

The same people locked every single door entry door, including the one between the garage and the house, so that when I came home with a load of groceries, I had to put every down on the floor of the garage and search for my house key in my purse. Then I found out that my house key doesn't work on that lock, or the lock to the front door, or the lock to the family room door. I finally got inside through the door to the master bedroom. Then I had to go back downstairs to the garage and haul the groceries upstairs. Frustrating, annoying and stupid.

And to top it all off, I went to the bank drive thru yesterday at 5 PM to deposit a small check in my checking account. All lanes were stacked at least two cars deep and there was only one person working the window. By the time I realized that it was going to take a little while, someone had pulled in behind me. I couldn't back out and go inside. I sat there for almost twenty minutes waiting. It seems like the 5 pm rush shouldn't have been a big surprise to bank employees. Why didn't they have more people at the window??

Moving On

With an eye on downsizing, our home has been for sale for several months. There was a lot of interest early on. But that slowed quite a bit recently. I had become complacent about the prospect of selling and moving. It seemed that with the slow economy and the even slower movement of houses in our price range that we wouldn't be moving anytime soon. Well, I was wrong.

We got an offer over the weekend and the buyers want to take occupancy on July 7. So we are in the crunch mode of getting packed up and moved out. With all of the kids gone and empty bedrooms, we don't have as much stuff to pack. Since we will be going into an apartment for a few months, a lot of our furniture and things we can do without for a few months, will be going into storage.

I'm a little stressed. But in the long run, it will be OK. It'll be nice to live a little bit simpler life for awhile. And it will be great to be able to lock the door of the apartment and take off on motorcycle traveling adventures. There will be no worries about a house left unattended. Another bonus will be no more HOA and the Nimbys.

Woo hoo! I better get cracking!

This and That

It seems like we might be done with the trees and views issues with the Nimbys. Monday night at an Architectural Review Committee meeting, Nimbys agreed to expand a line of yews across their rear lot line. That will more or less give us the screening we would like. We, on the other hand, will remove 5 or 6 small trees on our hillside that are on the extreme edges of the property. These trees will at some point in time will be over 30' tall. The curious thing about this final arrangement is that the trees we will be removing are not the original trees that they wanted removed because of the view issue. In fact, in order for their view to be blocked by the trees we will remove, the Nimbys would have to be standing in one particular square foot spot on their rear deck. But before we remove trees so that they can have a view from that square foot spot, the Nimbys have to come to a final agreement on a couple of other issues. So, we will wait.

I had a minor emergency this morning while getting ready for work. My hair dryer quit working!! Yikes! There was a time when my daughters were at home that I could borrow theirs and not missed a beat in the getting ready process. I panicked! What was I going to do? But through quick thinking and action on my husband's part, I didn't have to go with an unflattering natural look to work. Due to an early appointment he had this AM, he was already up and dressed. He willingly drove to my daughter's apartment and got hers and saved the day. He's a hero!

What a woman wants

Annie tagged me with this meme. Here are seven things that I want:

1. I want this Nimby thing settled. Come on Nimbys. A year is plenty of time to figure out if you are going to get your way or not. Can we just move on?

2. I want a magic pill that will help me instantly loose the extra ton-age that I'm carrying around.

3. I want a gazillion dollar windfall so that I can buy the all new wardrobe I'll need when the weight falls off from the magic pill.

4. I want to hear every conversation, television show and movie without the aid of the devices I now have to stick in my ears every day.

5. I want to go back to Paris.

6. I want to be able to get eight hours of sleep at night without the help of the prescription meds I take right now.

7. I want a rose bush for my garden.